Brandon Sanderson
Wayne Throop
On http://www.brandonsanderson.com/ there are four original series
he's pursuing: Alcatraz, Elantris, Mistborn, and Warbreaker.
I've read stuff in three of the series. In each case, we have
1) a very interesting newly-thunk-up detailed magical system,
which is for the most part stuck to fair and square, and
nobody suddenly gets a power just because it's convenient
to the scene at hand, and without working at it
2) a save-the-world crisis coming along
3) protagonists who trust somebody and get betrayed
as a major plot element... seeming good guys turning
turning out to be bad guys and/or vice versa, etc, etc
4) a eucatastrophe ending, but not out of left field,
ie, normally with strong foreshadowing so you *could* pick out
which elements are going to save the day
And one could argue that the Return and the Shaod look
sort of suspeciously reminiscent, but ... maybe not.
Not that I'm complaining. And I haven't read any in the "Alcatraz"
series yet (but plan to), and it looks like it may be somewhat different.
But this is just about as definite as Zelazny's habit of writing about
immortal superpowered demigods, in scientifictionalized rl-mythical
settings. So again, clearly, it's not necessaryily a bad thing.
And on the positive side, the endings aren't "everybody lives happily
ever after", or not quite. They're pretty positive, but not
prohibitively pollyanish; folks still gots problems and fallouts
from the late unpleasantness (in the case of Mistborn, definitely so).
There's also some interesting parallels between the magic system
in Warbreaker and Dave Duncan's "Man of His Word" series. Sort of.
So not necessarily bad. But it sure seems to be a trend.
( I just read the Warbreaker preview, dead-tree-book coming in '09,
which caused me to ponder. Once is interesting, twice is coincidence,
three times is a rut, or something like that. )
( And I am, of course, ignoring the "Wheel-o-Time" stuff. )
So the question is, is anybody else pondering what I'm pondering?
And if so, what are we going to do tonight?
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
Andrew Plotkin
> So is he in a bit of a rut already?
Yes, but I'm okay with that. Some writers do a great many things, some
do one thing over and over, and it's not *strongly* correlated with
whether I like their books.
On the other hand, I've only read two of Sanderson's serieses so far.
(Three of his books.)
On the third hand, Sanderson's rut consists of being clever, betting
that I can only partially outguess him, and then winning the bet. So
I'm still okay with it.
> There's also some interesting parallels between the magic system
> in Warbreaker and Dave Duncan's "Man of His Word" series. Sort of.
I've been comparing Sanderson to Duncan since I first read _Elantris_.
You could say that Duncan has been in something like a rut -- I'm
re-reading his "Seventh Sword" series (from the late 80s) and it's not
that different from his most recent dodeca-world books. But, you could
also say he's got consistent strengths.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
If the Bush administration hasn't subjected you to searches without a warrant,
it's for one reason: they don't feel like it. Not because you're innocent.
Sean Eric Fagan
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>You could say that Duncan has been in something like a rut -- I'm
>re-reading his "Seventh Sword" series (from the late 80s) and it's not
>that different from his most recent dodeca-world books.
Hm, I thought they were very different. (For one thing, I describe the
Seventh Sword series as science fiction, whilst the dodeca-world books are
definitely fantasy.)
On the other hand, I didn't care for the Man of His Word books. (My
favourite of his is _The Cursed_, and then the 7th Sword series. Which I
just bought as ebooks, yay.)
Sean O'Hara
declared:
> Here, Wayne Throop <thr...@sheol.org> wrote:
>> So is he in a bit of a rut already?
>
> Yes, but I'm okay with that. Some writers do a great many things, some
> do one thing over and over, and it's not *strongly* correlated with
> whether I like their books.
>
> On the other hand, I've only read two of Sanderson's serieses so far.
> (Three of his books.)
>
I've only read Mistborn, but it was clear after twenty pages why
he's been tapped to finish the Wheel of Time series.
> On the third hand, Sanderson's rut consists of being clever, betting
> that I can only partially outguess him, and then winning the bet. So
> I'm still okay with it.
>
Yup, just like Wheel of Time.
--
Sean O'Hara <http://diogenes-sinope.blogspot.com>
Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime
rates in the country.
-Marion Barry
Wayne Throop
: I've only read Mistborn, but it was clear after twenty pages why
Hm. Two points occur to me, first that I didn't find Mistborn to be
very wheel-of-time-ish (but I read that so long ago and didn't like it
enough, that that doesn't signify much), and that Mistborn's first 20
pages aren't really all that representative of the goings-on. IIRC, we
don't *really* get to it until considerably later.
Wayne Throop
: On the third hand, Sanderson's rut consists of being clever, betting
: that I can only partially outguess him, and then winning the bet.
: So I'm still okay with it.
Heh. Yeah, I suppose that's an apt summary.
David DeLaney
>Sean O'Hara <sean...@gmail.com>
>: I've only read Mistborn, but it was clear after twenty pages why
>: he's been tapped to finish the Wheel of Time series.
>
>Hm. Two points occur to me, first that I didn't find Mistborn to be
>very wheel-of-time-ish (but I read that so long ago and didn't like it
>enough, that that doesn't signify much), and that Mistborn's first 20
>pages aren't really all that representative of the goings-on. IIRC, we
>don't *really* get to it until considerably later.
Exactly!
Dave "Wheel of Time's first 200 pages or so were a deliberate homage, if I
remember correctly" DeLaney
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.